Which is better, the Sigma SD14 or Canon D30 and why apart from megapixels?

In general are Canon lenses compatable with Sigma?

I looked at the 30D and will wait till till the 40D comes out, but then I seen the Sigma and thought is it worth paying the extra for this even before the 40D comes out. Currently I have a 350D and enlarge to A4, which I am happy with, but what else should I consider apart from megapixels when considering what the Sigma has to offer. I take Architectutal landscapes mostly

Hmm, be careful if you think the Sigma will give you better resolution.

The image size in pixels (2640 x 1760) is actually smaller than the 30D (3504 x 2336). It's just that each pixel captures full 3-color information rather than a single color which then has to have the other values interpolated from the surrounding cells.

It is a matter of great debate which is best for enlargments. The truth is probably that the different cameras both perform well in most conditions but one will be better than the other under some circumstances, and vice-versa.

The sigma will only take sigma lenses. That may or may not be a problem for you.

My vague impression from lots of heated and conflicting is that the image quality from the Sigma probably falls somewhere between the Canon 30D and the Canon 5D. Whether that in itself is enough to cause you to go with Sigma instead of Canon as a system is something for you to decide.

I personally would not consider switching tothe Sigma as you already have a large investment in Canon glass and flash. The Sigma will only work with Sigma lenses on the Sigma mount so you would be starting from scratch.

What sort of photography are you looking at doing, the 30D and SD14 are very different beasts with the Canon winning in a lot of areas do to with speed. I use my 30D for shooting sports and my 5D for all other work. I've had work from my 30D blown to 30"x20" with little problem as long as you have good glass and sharp focus.

There is not a review either here or on Dpreview however there was one in a camera mag that I was reading this month and it didn't get me all excited. For the amount you would be spending to make a change of lenses, flash and body by getting the SD14 I would look at the 5D if you want portraits, landscapes and general photography. If you are out and out wanting to shoot wildlife or sports then the 30D is going to be the better choice (not you can't shoot these with a 5D but the 1.6x crop and faster continuous shoot is helpful).

Which is better, the Sigma SD14 or Canon D30 and why apart from megapixels?

You'll have to decide that one.

Color accuracy from the Foveon sensors used in Sigma models has been criticized by some people in the past, and from what I understand, the major issue is because of some light bleeding through and being detected by multiple silicon layers at a pixel location, making the task of accurately separating the colors into RGB components at each pixel challenging).

But, then again, Bayer type sensors have their own "quirks" because of the demosaic algorithms used to try and guess the correct RGB values needed at each pixel location, based on the values of adjacent pixels.

Mike Chaney (mchaney here) has a review up you may want to look at. He seems impressed with it (although he did notice things like a slight hue shift with some colors, as mentioned in his cons section).

It does seem to have come a long ways since the original SD9 was released. I can remember thread after thread about how bad the color accuracy was from the Sigmas at one point on some of the other forums, with all sorts of solutions being tried to find a way to correct color casts in post processing.

But, Sigma's Raw Conversion software (SPP for Sigma Photo Pro) has evolved a lot since then and seems to be a much better solution now.

No, they are designed to use Sigma Mount lenses (and only Sigma makes them). It's a proprietary lens mount design and nobody else but Sigma makes lenses for them (probably because of very low market penetration so the R&amp;D cost wouldn't justify doing it).

There may be an adapter available (I can remember seeing some lens tests at one point using Canon lenses via some type of arrangment). It may not be available to the public though and I don't know if that type of solution would allow for things like metering and autofocus or not (if you could even find a way to do it).

I would assume that you'll need to stick with Sigma lenses, designed specifically for the Sigma AF lens mount.

Quote:

Can the Canon 580ex flashgun be used with the Sigma model?

I don't know if it would fire or not. You'd want to use manual exposure and use manual power settings on the flash and try it to find out. Don't expect any kind of Auto or TTL type operation if you can get it to fire. You'll want a Sigma flash designed for a Sigma dSLR for full functionality.

The 5D certainly looks impressive, with the no lens compromise if wanting touse film equivilant lenses, the price seems off putting, but you get what you pay for, I will wait for the 40D to come out then decide.

Just to add once again I have a 350D and take architectural landscapes